Angels have a long history in Western culture. The word itself came from the Green angelos, a translation of the Hebrew mal’ahk, meaning messenger. As such they acted as intermediaries between gods and man. The ancient Sumerians were the first to depict them with wings; the halos were an idea copied from Roman non-angel art. In the Bible, they are manlike enough to wrestle and awe onlookers with their might and power. But other particulars were not recorded. Later theologians posited them as beings made of light, or genderless, or being “without desire.” If any of you are like me, you know them from Christmas cards, fine art, and Catholic churches: girly-looking blonde-haired men in nightgowns.

Modern depictions show a more sinister and sexual side. Storm Constantine’s novels about the Grigori, fallen angels who bred with human women, depict them as amoral, brutal beings prone to anal rape. In the movie 2010 Legion, angels act as God’s army to destroy the mortal world and cleanse it. The Twilight knockoff YA novel Hush, Hush depicts a hunky male angel falling in love with a teenage girl and stalking, humiliating, and abusing her. These depictions are a far cry from the dimply guardian angel of Facebook gifs.

Hebrew tradition lists about two dozen different kinds of angels and a like number of individual beings. From these, it wasn’t too hard to random gen my own.

The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued his Empire

by Jack WeatherfordBroadway Paperbacks, New York, 2010

[Challenge # 9: A book about a person you know little about.]

Winding up my book challenges for 2017. Am looking forward to next years’ reading. Who knows where it will lead me?

On to the Challenge. I hadn’t read any Asian history before this book (or anything about Genghis Khan, really) so I came in totally blind, and it took me a while to get into because I had no reference points. But I was glad I did, because, what an inspiration! It read like an outline for some fantasy series yet to be written.

The author had written a previous history of Genghis Khan and I am guessing this book was to serve as a companion to that one rather than an afterthought. Though the author focuses on the roles of women in this one — wives, daughters, daughters-in-law, mothers — among the ruling Mongolians, I felt it gave me a good, basic grasp of Mongolian history, which was something I might not have tackled in a more conventional text. At the end of it, I was eager to read more.

The only thing I can fault the book for was that the maps were inadequate for a newcomer to Asian history like myself. I would have preferred a macro view, that called out into smaller views as the chapters progressed.

Beer brewing is one of the most ancient of arts. Evidence exists for it in writing dating far back to 5000 BCE in Egypt and Mesopotamia. It went into eclipse during the days of the Roman Empire with its taste for wine; but came back in strong during the Medieval era, where it diversified and began to be sold in specialty taverns, the forerunners of today’s pubs and hop shops.

When you’re in Seattle,
visit Chuck.

Those very shops offer a dazzling variety to choose from in large urban areas. A perusal of the offerings of my favorite, the titular Chuck’s Hop Shop in Seattle, came up with these evocative names:

Ill Tempered Gnome Winter Ale

Melon Session Pale

Brewdocky

Fat Monk

Ivan the Terrible Imperial Stout

From similar parameters, it wasn’t too hard to random gen my own, with all the colorfulness weary adventurers deserve after a hard day of sacking and looting or overthrowing the dark lord.

Distinctive stars have distinctive names. Polaris, for example, is also known as the Pole Star, and at various places in its past Angel Stern, Cynosura, the Lodestar, and The Star of Arcady. Arcturus was known as Guardian of the Bear to the ancient Greeks. Constellation descriptions in old astronomical catalogs give descriptions such as “Regulus, the heart of the lion” and science fiction writers often reference stars created in their works by location, color, and brightness, e.g. “A yellow G2 star slightly smaller than Sol.”

Here’s some random gen names for your own work.

Star Names and Descriptions

Torsnilam, a dim star in the constellation of the Peacock

Delphwad, the Physician’s Wrist

Churalrai, the Star of Betrayal

Taungiethi, the Star of Malice

Quesraph, a brilliant white star in the constellation of the Badger

Torrara, a dim yellow star in the constellation of the Viper, also called The Corpse Star

Not only did ancient peoples look to the night sky’s constellations as cultural touchstones, they also looked to individual stars. The star Thuban helped the Egyptians align their pyramids, and Sirius, when it rose at dawn, let them know the flooding of the Nile was soon to come. The stars of the Pleiades star cluster signaled the start of the sailing season to the ancient Greeks.

The stars of the modern world have official names of the Latin possessive of the constellation they belong to, preceded a letter of the Greek alphabet (e.g. Zeta Reticuli). When the Greek alphabet runs out, Latin letters are used, and then numbers. Prominent stars also keep their ancient names, Anglicized, easier-to-pronounce versions of the Arab ones. A few are more ancient, and a few more modern. Stars containing a system of planets were recently named through an internet vote sponsored by the International Astronomical Union in 2015, for example. There are also stars named for people, like Barnard’s star and Tabby’s star.

Through the magic of random generation, here are some Arabic-sounding starry names you can use for your own fictional skies.